Runners and walkers out there for the exercise should avoid the main roads and the town centre, a new study says. Short-term exposure to air pollution prevents the cardiorespiratory benefits of physical activity. People who enjoy exercise should stay on back roads or even better hit the hill tracks.
Dr. Fan Chung, professor of respiratory medicine at London’s Imperial College, led the study whose findings have been published in The Lancet. He is echoing Professor Chan Chak-keung of the University of Science and Technology who explained to BUZZ what is dangerous out there. Some particulate matter in the air contains heavy metals and other carcinogens. Prof. Chan listed the dangerous matter as vehicle exhaust, biomass burning (kitchen and restaurant exhaust, burning vegetables and food waste) and dirty oil burning from ships and boats – see graphic below. The main roads are bad for your health as is the town centre. Worst of all are the in-door transport interchanges such as outside the Hang Hau MTR.
“When you walk your airways open up and your blood vessels dilate,” Dr. Fan said. “When you do this in a polluted place these effects are smaller so you have lost the benefit of exercise. When you exercise in polluted areas, you breathe in more and you get more of the particles and gases in your lungs.” Dr. Fan said this was particularly true of older people. Nevertheless the benefits of exercise outweigh the degenerative effect of a couch-potato lifestyle.
Anyone with exploratory instincts will find the hill and bush trails in Sai Kung and Clearwater Bay. The MacLehose Trail awaits the young and fit. If you join the Hash House Harriers, especially the ones that range all over Hong Kong (Hong Kong Hash House Harriers, Kowloon Hash House Harriers and Ladies of the Hong Kong Hash House Harriers, among others) and run with them weekly in time you will have see almost every trail in Hong Kong. If you want to learn about the hill trails in our district, you can join the Sai Kung Saturday Hash House Harriers. This Hash is 10 years old, mixed, says it has 328 members and runs monthly. See its Facebook page for details.
Prof. Chan is a scientist at the UST’s Division of the Environment. It operates one of the most sophisticated air pollution monitoring stations in Hong Kong. Located on the seashore at the university, the station is called a “Supersite” because it can analyse the content of the air we breathe in far greater detail than other such sites.
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